Sunshine State : Production Notes


SUNSHINE STATE was filmed entirely on Amelia Island, which like its counterpart in the film, is home to a traditionally white enclave and a traditionally black enclave, called American Beach. As producer Maggie Renzi explains, "A. L. Lewis was one of the several men who started the Afro-American Insurance Company, which was one of the first big black businesses. Lewis understood that there was nowhere for his workers and other black people to go to the beach in segregated Florida in the 20's. In 1935, with the cooperation of, among other people, Eleanor Roosevelt, he was able to purchase this big piece of beachfront and there was an exodus every Friday night from Jacksonville and everyone would go out to the beach for the weekend, including performers like Cab Callaway and Ray Charles, people like that. They'd finish their gig in Jacksonville and then come and club at night, on American Beach. Its just the sort of history that fascinates John, who is, in any case, fascinated by African American history, and history in general. "

John Sayles discovered Amelia Island while scouting locations for another project based on a short story he had written years before, about treasure hunters on the west coast of Florida. As he recalls, "I was struck by how changed the small towns there were from my last extensive visit fifteen years earlier. The Florida I had written about didn't exist anymore. I came across a mention of Amelia Island and the American Beach community in a "Lonely Planet" guide - I'd always been fascinated with the American Beach phenomenon and decided to go there and give the Florida idea one more shot. What I found was an island with all the elements - old and new, "Mom and Pop" businesses and corporate chains, gated communities, history as myth and tourist attraction, real estate as the hotly contested central issue in politics and parallel racial enclaves, all crammed into a relatively small area. " The characters in SUNSHINE STATE quickly sprang forth - "they evolved from the idea of black people and white people living parallel lives that occasionally intersect. One woman is realizing she needs to leave, while the other is discovering that she may be able to return. "

An acclaimed independent filmmaker whose career has spanned three decades, Sayles has built up a company of actors that he frequently works with and many of his favorites, including Tom Wright, Gordon Clapp and Clifton James, appear in SUNSHINE STATE. As Sayles says, "We've been very lucky in casting over the years. The actors in SUNSHINE STATE are a mix of people I've worked with before and people whose work I've admired but never gotten together with before. My favorite thing about production is getting good actors together and providing an environment for them to play off each other in. The better the actors are, the more of my work is done for me. "

Angela Bassett had worked with Sayles on PASSION FISH and CITY OF HOPE early in her career before becoming a major star with her performance as Tina Turner in WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT. As a native of Florida, she was thrilled with the project. Says Angela; "It's always a joy when he calls. I really enjoy working with John because it's such a wonderful collaborative experience. He is very clear about the characters but he gives you a lot of flexibility. You get to work together. You have boundaries that he has set but you also feel a sense of freedom as an artist. "

Edie Falco, best known for her two-time Emmy-winning role on HBO's The Sopranos, worked with Sayles for the first time on SUNSHINE STATE and was happy to return to her roots in the independent film world. As she says, "Hollywood has gotten its fingers into the whole independent film industry and changed it dramatically but this experience felt like it used to. We all liked the story, and each other, and we love to make movies. John has a knack for surrounding himself with certain people who have a certain similar energy about them. He takes it seriously but he doesn't get stressed out about stuff - he has it in perspective. "

Edie loved the character of Marly: "I really related to her and I was glad because she wasn't a character I had played before. She's a single woman, not a wife or a mother, which was a great change. Although she doesn't want the responsibility of her father's business, her family has been on this island for many generations. She is as local as they come and feels very possessive of the land and wants to see that it's done right by. "

In the film, both Edie and Angela's characters wrestle with how to incorporate the past with the present, what to hold on to and what to let go of. They return as women to the town they left as kids. They find that their parents are aging and their sleepy small town has become a Mecca for developers and outsiders. Says Sayles, "Change is tough on everybody. What you hope for is to hold on to the best and get rid of the worst. Furman's (played by Ralph Waite) golden days included racial segregation, a negative legacy but one that also was instrumental in making Lincoln Beach the unique center of African-American cultural life that it was. With the passing of segregation, the black community gained access to all kinds of areas that were denied before, but lost some of its cohesiveness. There is a lot of money to be made selling beachfront homes or businesses to corporate entities but a way of life disappears and people become more isolated, the world's less "personal. " Marly (Edie Falco) has tried to hold on to her father's dream to please him - but it's not her dream. Desiree (Angela Bassett) has burned all bridges to her past and her family, but finds she is now strong enough to re-establish contact and face the consequences. "

Jane Alexander and Ralph Waite play Marly's parents, Miss Delia and Furman. Ms. Alexander had worked with Sayles years earlier on a public television dance film and she was thrilled to work with him again. Says Alexander; "It was exciting for me because John and Maggie together have a long history of doing movies that really probe a particular relationship or a particular issue. The setting for this film is very important to John and in this film he investigates that and he came up with these incredible characters - it's complicated, wonderful and funny. There is a

lot of humor in this film. And it's fun to work on a John Sayles movie because John is so easygoing. He knows exactly what he wants and it's so beautifully written that you don't have to work hard. It was a delight to be part of. "

Best known as the wise father on the long-running TV series The Waltons, Ralph Waite jumped at the chance to portray Furman. As he recalls, "On the same day that this script arrived, I got an offer to do a Disney film in Australia. But when I read this script, there was no choice. I liked the story and I liked the character. Unlike so many movies nowadays, this is really about something. It's always a pleasure to do something that is meaningful and says something real about life, and happens to be beautifully written at the same time. We see a place where life has been very simple and very beautiful and suddenly developers are beginning to encroach and take over and destroy the local color by building these huge developments that rob the place of its beauty and uniqueness, making it impossible for ordinary people to live. My character reminds me of a rural King Lear. He's a local man who's made good but because of diabetes, going blind, getting old, he senses that life is closing down and that he's losing his power. He doesn't want to sell out but all of these forces are against him. He fights it but, unfortunately, mostly through words. He's an interesting character and as I've gotten older I've found that some of our power does diminish, both mentally and physically. It was great to do an old man that is still hanging in there. "

Like Waite, James McDaniel, who plays Desiree's husband Reggie, was a newcomer to the Sayles world. But he was a longtime fan. Says McDaniel; "I had been a great admirer of his work for years. He's a renegade, one of a kind, he's a gift to America. I have great respect for the things he has done. So more than just an acting job, the making of this film was an adventure for me. Because I'm a film director as well, it was great to see how he worked. He runs an extremely calm, soothing set, which we actors don't often get to experience. His style is very gentle and very confident - he knows when he's got it because he's also written it. "

As is characteristic of Sayles' films, the personal drama of SUNSHINE STATE plays out against a very real time and place in the American experience. Fascinated by the way social and political forces shape our personal experience, in SUNSHINE STATE Sayles explores how the development and sprawling of America impacts everyone, from the old-timers to the newcomers. America has always been a land of change, of throwing out the old for the new, but Sayles sees something new happening across America: "We have long celebrated the tradition of the self-made man, the entrepreneurial innovator who creates a fortune for himself through originality and hard work. A lot of legislation has been passed to fight monopoly and leave some breathing room for "the little guy. " But in the last fifteen years there has been collusion between government and international business that almost insures that big money will be able to drive out small money and jobs will go to the country that protects its workers least. I see patriotism and consumerism being touted as being identical virtues. The average citizen has less control over their life - food, regional culture and entertainment are all homogenized. Even history, as in SUNSHINE STATE, becomes a commodity. "

Florida has inspired many writers, from Wallace Stevens to Charles Willeford, from John D. MacDonald to Carl Hiassen, many of who write about the sleaze and hucksterism of Florida with both insight and humor. Sayles sees SUNSHINE STATE as part of this great tradition. As he says, "Florida continues to be one of our more schizophrenic states, as the finale of the Bush/Gore election illustrated. Southerners, northerners, midwesterners, black people, white people, Hispanic people, all living together in a state that was once considered uninhabitable swampland and then became an advertiser-created dreamscape. " It is that tension between the dream of Florida and the reality that creates the drama and the rich tapestry of characters of SUNSHINE STATE.

Author : Sony Pictures Classics